The NBA says it expects to award the 2019 All-Star Game to Charlotte, North Carolina, after the partial repeal of the so-called bathroom bill.

Commissioner Adam Silver made the announcement Friday after a league meeting. He said the NBA plans to develop an anti-discrimination policy and will ask its partners to meet those standards.

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Silver said returning to North Carolina is a "powerful way to display our values of equality and inclusion."

"By engaging more deeply in North Carolina we can be part of a national effort to secure more LGBT rights in North Carolina," Silver said.

The law required people to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate, not their gender identity, in government buildings and in public schools and universities. It also prevented local governments from passing nondiscrimination policies based on gender identity.

The league gave the 2017 All-Star Game to Charlotte, then moved it to New Orleans instead after the law was passed.

North Carolina lawmakers voted in March to repeal the law and eliminated the bathroom stipulation. The replacement also allows cities to enact their own nondiscrimination ordinances beginning in 2020.